Christmas Day at Mima's

Merry Christmas!

After an early wake up call, packing the car, and driving 5 hours, we arrived at Mima's! We had a great meal with tons of good food. Some of what we ate was: Chicken w/wine sauce, Tuna Lasagna, Asparagus, Salad, Veal Parmesan, Cookies, and Cake. So yummy!

Then we all gathered in the living room to exchange presents.

Obviously, Andrew is excited to see Peter again...

My lovely in-laws :)

Laura and Bill:

Peter must've been happy to see Andrew because this is the second picture he took of him!

Opening presents:

John-Paul with his new Star Wars book from Mima:

Laura adds more horses to her collection!

Andrew got some C.S. Lewis books. You can only see a piece of them though because Peter cut them out of the picture haha.

Mom and Mima opening the mugs from Matt, Ruthann, Wesley, and Zack:

Mima with her new mug. They were so cute with pictures of the kids on them.

Aunt Grace opening a bracelet from Matt, Ruthann, Wesley, and Zack:

Peter opening cologne from Italy from Mima:

Me with a new cookbook (bakebook?) from Mima :)

Laura opening the horse earrings that we got for her:

Peter taking a picture of John-Paul, and vice versa...

Aunt Grace wrapped Mom and Dad's presents with pre-presents. They weren't sure what was going on since each time they pulled something out, they were told it wasn't the "real" present haha. The "real" present was an awesome gift of pictures on a CD from old slides of Dad's.

Me with my hunny:

Mom inspects the apron we made for Mima. Hope it was up to her standards!

Mima being silly with her new apron:

Aunt Grace opening the coasters that we made for her and Uncle Michael:

Opening presents at Mima's is always more organized than at my parent's house. Both ways have their pros and cons and we enjoy getting to do each.

Peter and I again received many wonderful gifts, including, but not limited to: travel mugs, tea, soap, cologne, a cookbook, a photo from our wedding, cooking utensils, and a beautiful watercolor photo from Italy.

We are now back at Peter's parents house and are getting ready to have some pork roll! Peter and I haven't had any in a while, but it's tradition to have some while in Philly. We can't even find any pork roll to buy in the Pittsburgh area so we usually end up taking some home with us.

Traveling on Christmas and the entire week is always tiring, but we're so happy to be able to see our family and celebrate Christmas with them. Tomorrow they are calling for a huge snowstorm on the East Coast so we will have to see if we're able to see Nana and Aunt Marian tomorrow. We sure hope we can!

Christmas Eve In Hollidaysburg

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve! This morning we headed to Hollidaysburg bright and early. Peter needed a haircut so we wanted to make sure to make it to my dad's barber before he closed around noon. Peter dropped me off to do a little shopping (as always). I got a few last minute gifts and picked up a couple things for myself as well, haha. Then Peter and I headed to my parents and my sister and I went out shopping again. I can't believe how many people were out shopping on Christmas Eve. That's the first time in a few years that I've been out, but I guess stores are open and people are still finishing up with buying gifts.

Peter and I really miss being able to go to our own church for Christmas service so we decided to go to Grace Bible church at 6 PM. It was a candlelit service and was just wonderful to connect with the real meaning of Christmas.

Then we had our usual Christmas Eve gathering with my parent, siblings and their significant others/kids. My mom made a delicious dinner of stuffed shells, salad, and crab cakes. Yum, yum, and double yum!

We tried to making opening presents to not be as crazy as it usually is so that we could see what everyone gets, but it eventually got crazy. Not in a bad way, but just lots of people, lots of presents, lots of talking/laughing.

I'm not sure what Erik thought was funny, but I believe he was pointing at Mark in this picture...

And the presents begin...

Me and the love of my life :)

I think my dad is opening one of his several books that he received. Peter and I got him the new Tom Clancy book and he got 2 or 3 others books as well. No duplicates though! And nothing he's already read! He had just told my mom the week or so prior that he was about to end his last book. Talking about perfect timing! I'm sure the new books will keep him busy for a while.

Erik and Nichole...again looking at Mark and laughing...haha

Ashley got a "Modern Family" calendar from Mark, Jackie, and Christian. Dad asked it if was a record haha.

We bought Ashley the sunflower spoon rest and scarf while in Italy this past July. Hope she likes them because she can't return 'em!

Presents and trash quickly filled the entire living room!

Peter and I got a bunch of great presents including Euro Shams, sweaters, PJs, iTunes giftcards, the Willow Tree Nativity, James Taylor's Greatest Hits, and more!

After everyone except Peter, me, and my parents left, I spent some time putting our presents away in the corner of my old bedroom. We don't want to take them with us since we'll be back on Tuesday for a few days and can take them home then.

Then I put on my new PJs from Erik and Nichole and spent time hanging out with my mom in the living room. I always have to force myself to go to bed on Christmas Eve because we have to get up early to drive to Mima's. It's so nice to be with family and having a fun time. And it's only day one of our Christmas break!

Our Own Little Christmas

Peter and I always do our own little Christmas celebration where we exchange presents with each other. It originated from not wanting to pack our presents to each other, drive them all around with us and have them taking up room, only to bring them back home. I honestly love our time together alone. It's fun and sweet and just perfect!

We've also been taking an annual picture of ourselves with Cadi near our Christmas tree. It's always funny trying to get Cadi to look at the camera. We usually end up with a few of her running off or facing the wrong way. This year she did great, though!

Here, I thought we were taking another nice one, until Peter turned and was goofy at the last second. Wish I would've known!

Presents under the tree!

As we were exchanging presents, it started to snow! Peter tried getting some pictures, but it was a very fine snow so it was hard to pick up on camera.

Our beautiful tree. :) I think this year's was the best yet.

Peter loves musical snowglobes. A few years ago I bought him a musical snowman and this year I got a snowglobe that plays "Jingle Bells". I loved seeing his face when he opened it. :)

Peter bought me a beautiful teal dress. It was super cute on, too, but it was just a little too big. :(

New Gap pullovers for Peter!

We both enjoyed our evening together opening presents. I can't believe it's only 2 days until Christmas! Time flies! Tomorrow we'll be starting on our Christmas travels!